Month: February 2018

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another bum’s rush edition of Friday Night Fights! This week’s bout is the battle of the big rock candy mountain, with a bottle of hooch and a bulging bindle of SWAG on the line. Without further preamble, let’s go to the tale of the tape.

Fighting out of the red corner, from the somewhere down the drag-line, it’s David “Magneto” Zambito and his “Country Side Tunnel”.

And fighting out of the blue corner, from the back of a Canadian flyer, it’s Jason “The Axeman”Allemann and his “Moutain Train“.

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor and determine who will receive a week’s worth of bragging rights. Simply leave a comment below and vote for the model that best suits your individual taste. I will tally up the votes next Friday and declare a winner.

Last time, on Friday Night Fights….

It was the battle of the rovers, with crater naming rights and a fresh bottle of oxygen on the line. In the end, “Fabulous” F@bz and his “Yamaha Paladin Rover” scored a hotly contested 7-6 victory over “Badass”Billyburg and his “Big Wheel Rover“. F@bz scores his first victory (1-0) while Billyburg runs his record to (0-1).

The annual Lego Speeder Bike (LSB) contest has rounded the final turn and is staring down the final straightaway to the March 5th deadline. As many constant readers know, I’m all about the numbers and week 3 of the showdown saw another impressive jump in total entries to 69 across all categories. That number has gone from 7 to 36 to 69, which one might expect as a natural expansion curve, but the number I didn’t expect is the even distribution of bikes in each category. Abide, Enforce and Rebel each have 22 entries at the time of this posting, and the Distcrict 18 category understandably lags way behind with only 3 entries dude to it’s elevated level of difficulty and requirements. A slightly deeper dive into the numbers reveals that 33 builders have entered the arena, with the number of entries per builder breaking down like this.

10 players with 1 entry.

13 players with 2 entries

7 players with 3 entries

3 players with all 4 entries

Having reviewed every entry in the pool I feel pretty safe in saying that the overall quality of the entries has increased as well, as you might expect. For most people, more time spent refining a bike means a better bike. The only thing I find troubling about the numbers is the number of people sitting on 3 entries after 3 weeks. When I competed last year there were also 4 categories and I allotted a weeks building time for each one. While I realize not everyone would adopt this strategy I do think it takes most people about a week (or weekend) to conceptualize, build, photograph and post a bike. Obviously the goal can be completed great deal quicker as the three guys who have posted in the District 18 thread prove, but the results of such a fast approach has proven to be less than stellar. In fact, all 3 entries in the diorama category are forgettable and disappointing. That may seem a harsh thing to say, but I feel a little better saying it because I left them all detail reviews days before this posting, so my objections are old news. I would also point to the relatively low numbers of favorites and reviews. All 3 entries are variations on the same theme: cop chases rebel while abider looks on. The basic premise is about as interesting as the stock handlebars featured on 80% of the bikes. Beyond the basic theme, the contestants are flat out not putting as much effort, respect or creativity into the background as they do the bikes…which while fine for the individual categories, is a poor decision for the District 18 category. I’m obviously biased because diorama is my preferred genre of building, and it probably pains me more than it should to see people going through the motions instead of trying to break through the boilerplate and give the audience a show. I want to see some dioramas like last year’s offerings from Carter, Zach, Jeff, and I’ll arrogantly attach my own name to that list. Whether the image goes edge-to-edge like the examples I just showed you or not doesn’t matter to me, so let’s not rehash that old argument about which is the better approach. The bottom line is that the 2018 competitors need to step up their diorama game, 2017 is laughing at them.

Before I get into the bike spotlights, I’d like to discuss a disturbing trend that is one example away from being the unofficial theme of the contest…poop. Maybe the builder, Nick Poncelow is right, and that I’m just not down with toilette humor but his plumber bike from the abide category really put me off. I just don’t get it…the plumber took a dump on the seat of his bike? Is that the plumber you want walking around your house? I think the idea of a toilette shaped seat is funny but a dookie? Not so much. As if that wasn’t enough, contestant GolPlaysWithLego sneaks a poop emoji into the presentation of his bike. It’s a great bike, why tell me it’s a steaming pile of shite? Am I old and out of touch with is issue? If you have an opinion on this alarming and creeping issue in the contest, please leave your crappy takes in the comments.

Now it’s time for my favorite build in each category for week 3. The ABIDE entries were a mixed bag but I really like the Downtown Ride by Faber Mandragore, especially after a couple of small but important revisions he made to both the bike and the base. I continue to be amazed by the percentage of people who are actually taking advantage of the feedback from the audience. The camera angle on this official shot doesn’t really do the bike justice, so if you dig it, make sure to follow the link and take a look at the other photos. I still think the base looks a bit generic, but it’s cut above most of the other entries who treat the vignette/stand as an afterthought. I also dig the special effects, they’re noticeable without being overwhelming or distracting.

The ENFORCE category had a couple of good entries this week but my favorite is the L.E.V. 5 by oOger, whose name always make me think of the word booger, which is unfortunate because I’m a big fan of his work. This entry checks all the boxes, clever parts use, exotic parts, good stickering and it looks cool from every angle. Many builders tend to avoid developing the bottom of the bike, but oOger goes the extra mile. If you’re going to go for the boilerplate highway-patrol pursuit bike look, you can’t do much better than this. It looks fast and aggressive and ready to intercept a rebel or an abider jacked up on meth. I’m not a huge fan of the helmet (ant man?) but I like the way you can see his eyeball through the face-mask. I’m still not completely sold on the base, although it is an unusual part choice. Even if it doesn’t make sense to me, it ultimately looks pretty cool and I suppose that’s all that matters. It certainly makes me want to see more, and I hope the builders incorporates it into his District 18 entry if he chooses to do one.

Rebel remains my least favorite category and it contains fewer bikes that I find interesting. I admit to being burned out on the Mad Max, post apocalyptic vibe, which isn’t really fair to hold against a builder but I’m going to do it anyway. This entry by F@bz was one of the exceptions, I can’t say enough good things about it, and he’s really the first competitor to take maximum advantage of the vignette/base. With the Volkswagen badge and the banana-yellow color scheme, it seems like it would be better suited to the Abide category, but the context and choice of driver helps to move the needle towards rebellion. I also appreciate the backwards cap on the driver, so many people use hair, which immediately robs the bike of any sense of movement. The background may be of the boilerplate concrete urban variety, but it’s pretty sweet boilerplate.

If you’ve been reading this series of wrap-ups you’ll know by now that my favorite aspect of the contest this year is watching builders improve their entries based on the feedback provided by roaming critic gallery. Week 3 brought so many examples of constructive criticism in action that it’s no longer noteworthy in terms of these wrap up posts. It has almost become the norm. Even if I didn’t see any more examples of builders using feedback from this point on I’m ready to call this contest a success in terms of spreading the gospel of the critical process. The number of good quality comments is increasing each week as more people seem to be willing to offer suggestions and opinion even if it’s occasionally a negative one.

With one week to go I expect to see the veteran prize-snipers take their shots and the District 18 category to finally attract some great entries. If you’re still on the fence about entering the contest you’ve still got time to get in on the action, and none of the categories have a clear winner yet. Rutherford, get off your ass and build a bike already!

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another bolo-punch edition of Friday Night Fights! This week’s bout is the battle of the rovers, with crater naming rights and a fresh bottle of oxygen on the line. Without further preamble, let’s go to the tale of the tape.

Fighting out of the red corner, from a cafe on the Champs-Élysées, it’s “Fabulous” F@bz and his “Yamaha Paladin Rover”.

And fighting out of the blue corner, from his double stuffed recliner in the AFOL retirement home, it’s “Badass”Billyburg and his “Big Wheel Rover“.

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor and determine who will receive a week’s worth of bragging rights. Simply leave a comment below and vote for the model that best suits your individual taste. I will tally up the votes next Friday and declare a winner.

Last time, on Friday Night Fights….

It was the battle of the stag party, with access to a pile of acorns and an exemption from hunting season on the line. In the end, Joe “The Punisher” Perez and his “Stag“ scored a staggering (thanks Aaron) 11-1 victory over Tim “Lionheart” Lydy and his “The Ravenstag”. Perez scores his first victory (1-0) while Lydy runs his record to (0-1).

We’re two weeks in to the annual LSB contest on Flickr and the number of entries has spiked from 7 to 36 with even more bikes floating around the pool, untethered from the official threads. I planned on going back and comparing the totals to last year’s numbers but as it was pointed out last week, this edition of the contest is it’s own unique creature and probably shouldn’t be compared too closely to it’s predecessors. So I’ll leave that kind of analysis until the final wrap-up or maybe leave it for Ted if he chooses to close out the proceedings with a piece for the Manifesto. I’m also quite lazy and just keeping up with commenting and offering my unsolicited critique on each and every entry is taking up a good deal of time. On that note, my favorite aspect of the contest seems to be getting stronger with each passing day, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many contestants not only accepting of feedback but also willing to go the extra step of incorporating the better suggestions into second drafts. Critique should rarely be taken in it’s totality but rather approached with a salad-bar mentality where you just grab the ingredients that make sense and taste good.

Jonathan Gilbert took his bike to the next level with a little help from the audience. Although I’m not one of these guys who think every exposed stud must be covered with a tile, the first version of this bike was just too knobby. The background so overwhelmed the bike in terms of quality that it was distracting, so cheers to Jonathon for going after it aggressively and smoothing out the bike while adding details like a windscreen, side mirrors and headlight.

The same can be said for FonsoSac, who improved not only the bike but the base as well and with one revision took his bike from participant to contender by paying attention to the criticism. I think some people are just mailing it in when it comes to the base because the rules say the base will not factor into the judge’s decision making process. Now, while I’m certainly NOT calling the judges liars, I do believe that if two bikes are really similar in quality the bike with the better base will win.

ska2d2 cites the encouragement and good advice of fellow competitor Pico Von Grootveld for improvements to his entry, and again, it’s not just the bike that’s better for the the criticism but the base as well. Just changing the orientation of the motorcycle shell made a world of difference but he went the extra mile and improved the rider, and nearly every significant aspect of the design.

To quote Deltassius in one of the conversational threads, the “roaming critic gallery” may be small, only three or four builders, but it does seem to be having a positive impact on both the quality of the bikes and the community spirit of the contest in general. I’d bet money that the gallery will eventually comes up against someone who doesn’t want to hear their (our) jackassy opinions, but for now it’s been unusually gratifying to promote the concept of constructive criticism rather than just gasbag about it on the blog. Shout-out to Werewolff who I see comment on just about every single entry, it’s one thing to participate and build a bike, but it’s another thing entirely to reach out to a competitor with words of encouragement and critique. I just wish there were more constant readers out there making the rounds with us.

As for the bikes of week two, there were a lot to choose from when it came down to highlighting the best of the group, so I decided for the sake of brevity (wouldn’t want to make anyone’s patience grow too thin with excessive commentary) to limit my observations to one example from each category.

The ABIDE category is proving to be the most popular, varied and intriguing of the group so far. My favorite of the most recent crop of offerings is the “Sea Snipper” by P.B., I actually liked halfbeak’s entry better as a pure bike, but if I was a judge this would be my pick. Unlike halfbeaks’ bike it has a clear purpose, offers a bit of comedy and tells more of a story with all the attachments and the robotic sidekick. I really like the spindly look of the front, out there on a single precarious bar/antenna. The octopus camouflaged in the water is a great addition to what is otherwise a pretty simple base.

The ENFORCE category is where you’ll find most of the boilerplate of the contest, there are some slick entries to be sure, but everything is very…expected, that is with one notable exception of the “Impounder” by halfbeak. Most entries are content to resemble highway patrol bikes, suitable for pursuit and very little else, but this bike has the specific and somewhat horrific capability to snatch a driver and/or it’s bike right out of the not so friendly skies. The friendly Frisbee drone is also a nice touch (tied in by the decals), along with the simple but effective base. The lime green really pops and helps accent the bike.

The REBEL category is a little problematic in it’s vague definition and I think it’s the most difficult for the contestants to fully engage with. It reduces the basic concept to stereotypes like the rebellion of Star Wars or Mad-Max style biker gangs. I’m prepared to be persuaded that the category is actually the most liberating and nobody has really taken advantage of it yet, but so far it houses my least favorite entries. Of course there are always exceptions and if I had to declare a winner of week 2’s offerings it would be the “Junkspeeder” by GolPlaysWithLego. I think it definitely falls into the Star Wars spectrum of rebellion, but it adheres to the rule of cool and looks very fast and aggressive. I’m not sure if it looks like it was created in a junkyard…but the roll cage makes up for any thematic weakness. The base is modest but a cut above many of the competitors, that tentacle throws just enough of a monkey wrench into the mix. Is it a plant? Is it a tentacle? Is it a snake? I don’t know but it looks odd in the best possible way.

It’s still early so there are only a couple of entries into the diorama-based DISTRICT 18 category. I’m not terribly moved by either one so I’ll wait until week 3 to add those into the mix here on the Manifesto. Since the action over here has faded a little as we slip towards the jaws of DA3 and hiatus, why not head over to the LSB contest and encourage the participants? There is a hunger out there for good quality feedback which is rarely in short supply around here.

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another counterpunch edition of Friday Night Fights! This week’s bout is brought to you by friend of the blog and resident contrarian Vitreolum. It’s the battle of the stag party, with access to a pile of acorns and an exemption from hunting season on the line. Without further preamble, let’s go to the tale of the tape.

Fighting out of the red corner, from deep in the heart of Illinois, it’s Tim “Lionheart” Lydy and his “The Ravenstag”.

And fighting out of the blue corner, also from parts unknown, it’s Joe “The Punisher” Perez and his “Stag“.

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor and determine who will receive a week’s worth of bragging rights. Simply leave a comment below and vote for the model that best suits your individual taste. I will tally up the votes next Friday and declare a winner.

Last time, on Friday Night Fights….

It was the battle of the monkey shine, with access to a crate full of bananas and control of the jungle canopy on the line. In the end, Jimmy “Fendoir” Fortel and his “Three wise monkeys“ scored an overwhelming and unprecedented 15-0 victory over “Poignarder” Pistash and his “The three wise monkeys”. Fortel scores his first victory (1-0) while Pistash runs his record to (0-1).

The first week of the LSB contest has flown by in the blink of an eye and unfortunately the turnout so far has been tepid at best. I do realize that it’s too early in the process to be alarmed and that most established builders prefer to wait until the very end to unveil their masterpieces. That said, 7 entries in as many days seems to be a much slower pace than the last year, when there were 17 entries after the first week. I don’t really have a theory as to why there seems to be a drop-off this year, maybe it’s fatigue with the topic, a lack of promotion on big blogs, a lack of the familiar front-man Cole Blaq, declining participation on Flickr in general, the Manifesto’s crappy prizes or even intimidation. Some of you might be thinking “Intimidation? Who would be intimidated by something as innocuous as a speeder bike contest?” but there is some evidence out there that it might be a factor. For example, Mike M. is an established builder of considerable skill who has been featured on this blog and many others. In the comment section for his entry he had this to say:

“I shy away from lego related contest, not only is the competition fierce,but I know its filled with badass builders, and I’m way outa my league I’m sure, contest not over yet!!!”

While Mike did indeed offer up a viable contest entry, I doubt he’s alone in his line of thinking. A few builders witnessed the quality level and competition last year and they appear hesitant to enter, fearing that their skill set is not up to the task, or that they will be crushed by veteran builders. Instead of rising to the challenge, they shrink or worse still, refuse to engage. Another prospective combatant, Dan The Imposter who has yet to enter the arena had this to offer in the announcement thread:

“Not going to lie, after last year’s builds I am a little intimidated. I liked this contest more when I didn’t know any better!”

While Ted and I tried to offer encouragement from the sidelines, it would have been nice to see more voices (including the other two admins) jump in the conversation to urge these nervous Nancys to sack-up and get in the game. Plenty of great builders got their asses handed to them last year by the likes of Carter Baldwin and there is nothing wrong with that, in theory it should only improve performance in the future. I’m not sure what the solution is to the intimidation factor, but it’s a shame to lose potential participants over something so silly.

On to the bikes….I have to admit that I’ve been underwhelmed by the early crop of entries, although competent, none of them are particularly memorable. We need a hero, we need the “Ice Breaker” as defined by Ted in one of his Talks:

Guest #1: The Ice Breaker – The “Ice Breaker” is the personal hero of every contest host. They enter the contest first, and now you can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Their entries offer you an early gauge of how the contest will go, and if you need to course correct if they are way off the mark. Allowing people to swap entries until the deadline also relieves much of the risk of being the “Ice Breaker”. It lets them rework their entry if a better idea happens to comes along…like one from…

I was hoping F@bz might be the Ice Breaker, when I saw him dive in early. He possesses both the requisite mad building skillz, and a huge Flickr following that might bring fresh competitors, but his offering was kind of mundane. While the saddle blanket is without a doubt a cool and clever detail and the bike as a whole is competently constructed, it doesn’t exactly bowl me over. I won’t even get into the Chinese knockoff figure.

Although there are a couple of entries that have an interesting idea or detail here and there, the only other bike worth mentioning at the one week mark is this shark carcass bike by Marcel V. Much like F@bz’ speeder, it relies heavily on a single gimmick to carry the build and the rest of it is pretty standard boilerplate. It reminds me of a La-Z-Boy recliner with a dead shark strapped to the bottom.

It’s also worth giving some love to the contest’s first digital entry, by Luke, not only is it a nice looking ride, but the builder showed that he’s able to absorb apply constructive criticism. He took good advantage of the contest’s rather liberal policy of allowing builders to improve and replace their entries right up until the end of the competition. Ted Andes mentioned somewhere in the proceedings that the unspoken mission of the event is to promote feedback between builders, and that’s great, but I think it should be very much spoken, and spoken loudly…it’s really what separates this contest from so many of it’s brethren.

Unfortunately my favorite speeder in the LSB group pool isn’t even entered into the contest, it’s apparently from a Star Wars movie that I refused to see and it looks pretty great. The builder is Inthert, and I sincerely hope he takes a crack at an official entry because he’s obviously got the mojo for it, providing of course he can break away from the pre-packaged theme. The bike did draw my attention to a sort of confusing aspect of the contest, that there are quite a few bikes in the pool that have nothing to do with the contest, which seems both odd and unfortunate to me. It made me wish that the contest existed in it’s own separate group, because I’m never sure whether or not I should comment on half the bikes in the pool. I feel more jackassy than usual offering my constructive criticism on stuff that isn’t meant for the contest. I’m also confused as to why you would post a speeder bike and not enter it? I don’t know if it’s a reading comprehension issue or lack of clarity in the rules but I see a few people who don’t seem to be putting the bikes in the proper threads to ensure their eligibility for judgement and possibly a prize.

I’m confident things will pick up in the coming weeks, but at the quarter mile post I was hoping for a little more action.

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another flying guillotine edition of Friday Night Fights! This week’s bout is the battle of the monkey shine, with access to a crate full of bananas and control of the jungle canopy on the line. Without further preamble, let’s go to the tale of the tape.

Fighting out of the red corner, from darkest France, it’s “Poignarder” Pistash and his “The three wise monkeys”.

And fighting out of the blue corner, also from darkest France, it’s Jimmy “Fendoir” Fortel and his “Three wise monkeys“.

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor and determine who will receive a week’s worth of bragging rights. Simply leave a comment below and vote for the model that best suits your individual taste. I will tally up the votes next Friday and declare a winner.

Last time, on Friday Night Fights….

It was the battle of Territory EA27, with access to SZ18 and control of the continent on the line. In the end, LukeClarenceVan“The Revanchist” and his “Blast Off!” scored a narrow 6-5 victory over Pistol Pico van Grootveld and his “Cabo Agave“. LCVTR scores his first victory (1-0) while Pico runs his record to (0-1).